Charges against three men for allegedly bringing the first known supply of the illegal drug khat into Green Bay could be resolved within the next several weeks.

One man, Abdignani Raage, 30, of Green Bay has pleaded no contest to related charges in Brown County Circuit Court. Two other men, Abdimajid Said, 37, of Minneapolis, and Hussein Salad, 31, of Howard, are scheduled for trial next month.

Raage was sentenced earlier this month to two years of probation for felony possession of a nonnarcotic with intent to deliver and two misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance.

Said and Salad are both charged with a felony count of possession with intent to deliver. Said is scheduled for a Jan. 14 final pretrial conference. Salad’s final pretrial conference is Jan. 28.

The three are believed to be immigrants from Somalia, where the drug immensely popular, according to police.

Believed to be? Why isn’t their status a known fact at this point? And why isn’t deportation on the table?

The effect of the drug is similar to that of cocaine or methamphetamine, though less intense, according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Drug Intelligence Center. Chronic abuse can result in exhaustion, violence and suicidal depression.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security allegedly intercepted two boxes of khat at a Cincinnati port in October 2011, according to court records. The boxes, which came from the Netherlands, were addressed to a postal mailbox in Green Bay. Local drug enforcement agents were notified. They staked out that postal box and arrested the three when they showed up to pick up the delivery, the complaint says.

Local drug enforcement officers say this was their first khat-related find but that they expect the drug to become more common as the area’s Somali population grows.

“Non-narcotic” is right. This benign cultural ritual, this chewing of mildly stimulating Khat leaves, slightly more psycoactive than coffee, has fostered no acute social patholgies over centuries of use in the many countries where it is legal and, according to medical authorities is less addictive, and far less harmful, than nicotine or alcohol…unfortunately, the xenophobic hysteria that fostered the clearly unsuccessful laws against marijuana, another example of a prohibition that proves that the “cure is much more debilitating than the disease it purports to cure,” e.g., the unwinnable and socially destructive “War On Drugs,” is once again at work here. Get a life people!

Khat contains, among other things, Dexedrine. It makes men impotent with long term heavy use. Not a very good drug to take, but your point about the futility of prohibition is correct. We should import more khat leaves, as it might stem the Islamic invasion through birth control.